Lone Defender (Love Inspired Suspense)

by Shirlee McCoy

  “Me.” She dropped onto the ground, pressing her face to her bent knees.

  “Here’s the thing, Grady.” He crouched beside her, forced her chin up so they were eye to eye. “If you stay, I stay. That means I die, and I’m not willing to die tonight.”

  She stared into his eyes, rain streaming down her face, sopping her hair so that it clung to her head. She looked cold, tired, miserable, but she didn’t look done. She looked angry. “How about you do your thing, and I do mine? How about you climb, and I stay?”

  “How about we stop arguing and get moving?”

  She hesitated, then stood. “Fine. We’ll do it your way, but if I fall to my death, it’s on your head.”

  “You won’t fall.” He tied the rope around his waist and hers, brushing her hands away when she tried to stop him.

  “Says the man who hasn’t been wandering around in the desert for six days,” she muttered, but she was already reaching for the first handhold, already feeling her way around the lower edge of the wall, pulling up along the slippery rock, her muscles tight with effort, her face set.

  A birdcall sounded through the storm, as out of place as a lion’s roar in the city. Whoever followed had found their trail. It wouldn’t be long before the hunter spotted the prey.

  Hurry.

  That’s what he wanted to say, what he wanted to shout as he followed Skylar’s slow ascent. Ten feet. Thirty. Fifty. Jonas could almost taste their victory, almost feel the relief that would come when he pulled himself over the ledge and into the cave.

  Another birdcall and another.

  Skylar slipped, her soft scream carrying above the storm. Jonas wedged his hand into a crevice, preparing to support her weight if she continued to fall. She slid another foot, then caught herself just above Jonas’s position. He scrambled up beside her, pressing his free hand to her back, holding her steady as she caught her breath.

  “I told you this was a bad idea,” she mumbled, but there was no going back, and she knew it.

  “We’re almost there.”

  “This isn’t a car ride through the country, Jonas. Almost may as well be a million miles away.”

  “A million mile journey begins—”

  “With a single step. Right. How about we not get philosophical while we’re hanging from the face of a cliff?”

  “How about—”

  “We keep moving?” She reached up, her fingers clawing at slick rock as she searched for a hold, found it, pulled herself onward with trembling arms. Below, a light jumped and swayed, the beam touching the base of the mesa before moving away.

  Hurry, hurry, hurry.

  The word chanted through Jonas’s mind, but he didn’t dare say it. Didn’t dare push Skylar out of the slow, steady progress she was making. Almost done in, that’s how she’d looked. There was a very fine line between that and done. Skylar had no choice but to move slowly, and Jonas had no choice but to follow. God willing, they’d make it. If not, at least they’d die trying.

  The thought was cold comfort as Jonas moved into place beneath Skylar and started climbing again.

  THREE

  The rope loosened on Skylar’s waist, and she knew Jonas was on the move. He seemed to easily navigate the same path she struggled with. No fear. No hesitation. If not for Skylar, he’d already be at the top of the mesa and moving away from the danger that stalked them. Instead, he stayed beneath her, matching her plodding pace. The weight of that, the responsibility of it, drove her on.

  Rain poured from the sky, turning rough rock into slick ice. Too slick. One more missed handhold, one more slipped foot, and she’d go down, carrying Jonas with her.

  Two bodies lying on the soaked desert floor.

  She shuddered, reaching for the next handhold. She should have stayed on the ground. Should have insisted he go on without her, but he’d been right to think she wasn’t a quitter. She’d never quit anything in her life, and she couldn’t quit this. No matter how much her burning muscles might want her to.

  “Come on, Grady, keep moving.” Jonas’s words penetrated her pain-induced fog, and she realized she’d stopped, was hugging the wall like she planned to stay there all night. Cold rain, throbbing heat, her body shaking with fatigue or fever or both, and all she could do was cling to her position and pray her cramped fingers didn’t let loose, her trembling legs didn’t give out.

  “Climb!” Jonas shouted as if that would give her the impetus to move.

  What he didn’t seem to understand was that she wanted to move. She really did. But her body refused to cooperate. Her fingers dug deep into small niches, her feet pressed hard onto a tiny ledge of rock, and she could not move.

  Could.

  Not.

  The rope slapped her hip as Jonas eased sideways and up. She didn’t need to watch to know what he was doing. Moving into position to pass her.

  No. Not pass.

  He wouldn’t leave her clinging to the mesa.

  She hadn’t known him long, but she knew that. Sensed it the same way she’d sensed trouble when she’d arrived in Cave Creek and started asking questions about the deadbeat dad she’d been tracking. Something had been brewing in the little town, and she should have turned tail and run. Instead, she’d dug in her heels, kept on asking, kept on pushing.

  Someone had pushed back.

  Who?

  It was a question she’d been asking for the better part of a week. If she ever got out of the desert, she’d find the answer.

  For now she needed to focus on surviving.

  Focus on climbing.

  Focus.

  But her thoughts were as clumsy as her movements and scattered as easily as dry leaves on a windy day.

  “Move it, Grady, because I’m not in the mood to toss you over my shoulder and carry you up to the cave.” Jonas perched inches away, his eyes gleaming in the darkness.

  “As if you could,” she responded, the words slurred and thick, her teeth chattering on each one.

  Not good.

  She was losing it. She knew it. Jonas knew it. She could see it in his eyes, could sense it in the urgency of his words.

  “I’ll do what I have to do.”

  He would.

  Of course, he would.

  And they’d both die because of her.

  Not the way she wanted to go. Not the end she’d imagined for her life, that was for sure. She’d much rather die an old lady, sitting in an easy chair reading a good book. Preferably after eating a very large and satisfying meal.

  She scowled, reaching up, her muscles screaming in protest. Just a little farther. She could do that.

  Please, God. Please, help me do it.

  Jonas moved past her, the rope pulling tight on Skylar’s waist. Seconds later, he called out from above.

  “The rope is secure. Just another foot, and I can grab you and pull you into the cave.” His words penetrated the thick haze that had wrapped itself around Skylar’s brain. Another foot might as well have been a hundred, but she kept moving anyway, letting momentum carry her.

  A hand wrapped around one wrist, grabbed the other as she reached again. Hard hands. Firm and warm. She had a split second to think those things, and then she was off the wall, lying on hard ground, staring up at blackness. No rain pouring down her face. No cold breeze biting through her borrowed jacket. No endlessly tall mesa to climb.

  Nothing but darkness, and she slid into it, her eyes closing.

  “Good job, Grady.” The rough words echoed off the cave walls, and Skylar wanted to respond, but she had nothing left. No words. No energy.

  A soft cloth wiped rain from her face, gentle hands tucked a Mylar blanket around her shivering body, a palm pressed to her forehead. “You’re feverish.”

  Feverish?

  Of course she was.

  She had to be if she was letting someone take care of her.

  The thought gave her enough energy to open her eyes, push onto her elbows. “I’m fine.”

  “You will be. Here.”
Jonas handed her two tablets and a bottle of water.

  “What is it?”

  “Something for the fever.”

  “I’m not much for taking medicine. I’ll let the fever burn itself out.” She thrust the medicine back, but he folded her fingers over the pills.

  “It’s a couple aspirin, Grady. It won’t kill you, and it might make the night a little more comfortable.”

  She nodded, fumbling to open the water bottle. Aspirin she could do. It was other things she had to avoid. Hard-core painkillers had taken her mother twenty years ago, had almost taken Skylar seventeen years after that. She’d been a hair’s breath from addiction in the months after she’d been shot and nearly killed in the line of duty. If not for Kane Dougherty, she might have chosen the path of least resistance, gone the way of her forefathers.

  She owed him big for what he’d done.

  Then again, he owed her big for sending her to Cave Creek and into a boatload of trouble.

  She’d tell him as much once she made it back to civilization.

  She yanked at the bottle top, scowling when it still refused to open. It was a water bottle, for goodness’ sake. Not a combination lock. All she needed to do was twist, but her fingers were still clumsy from cold and exertion, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t manage the simple task.

  “Let me.” Jonas eased the bottle from her hand, opened it, then returned it, his fingers brushing her knuckles, the contact spreading warmth through her chilled skin. She wanted to lean close, let his heat seep into her icy body. Instead, she took a swig from the bottle to help swallow the aspirin, pulled the Mylar blanket close, trying to stave off the tremors that racked her body.

  “Thanks.”

  “Maybe you should save the thanks for after I get you to the airport and on the plane back to New York.”

  “That might take a while, seeing as how I have a score to settle and I’m not leaving town until I do it.” She took another sip of water, pulled the gun from her waistband and set it on the ground. She had firepower, and she wasn’t alone. She’d managed to free-climb the mesa without falling to her death.

  Things were definitely looking up.

  “It might not take as long as you think. I have express orders to get you out of the desert and onto the next plane back to New York.”

  “Funny, you don’t seem like the kind of guy who takes orders.”

  “Depends on who is doing the ordering. When it’s a good friend who’s concerned about his employee, I’m willing to go along with the plan.”

  “Unfortunately, I’m not.” She set the water bottle on the ground, tried to see Jonas’s face through the darkness. She had the sense of harnessed energy and restrained strength, of corded muscle and irritation. He’d come to her aid, and he expected her to want to be rescued.

  And she did.

  From the wilderness. From her six-day nightmare, but not from her obligation to follow up on the case she’d been investigating. Certainly not from her obligation to find the person who’d tried to kill her.

  Was still trying to kill her.

  “You may not have a choice, Grady. You’re done in. Sticking around town, searching for answers when you’re sick and exhausted could get you killed.”

  “Not if I’m careful.”

  “Were you being careful when someone knocked you out and drove you out into the desert?”

  “How about we have this argument after we’re back in civilization?”

  “Avoiding the question doesn’t change the answer.”

  “And asking it doesn’t change my mind. I’m sticking around until I figure out who wants me dead and why.”

  “Kane said you were stubborn.”

  “I see that as one of my better qualities.”

  “Good to know.” He chuckled, the sound rusty and dry.

  “You should also know that after we get out of here, I’m planning on doing things my way. No trip to New York. No hiding away while someone else solves my problems.”

  “We’ll see.” He moved away, leaving her shivering under the Mylar blanket.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Just checking on our friends.”

  “Do you really think you’ll be able to spot them?” She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and followed him to the mouth of the cave. Rain blew in on a gust of air, and her teeth chattered, but she was not going to lie on the floor of the cave while Jonas did what she should be doing herself.

  “Maybe.”

  “And you’re sure they found our trail?” She peered out into the darkness, seeing nothing but gray-black night.

  “Yes.”

  “I’d ask you why, but you’d probably just say ‘because.’”

  He chuckled again. “They followed my trail for at least two days. I don’t think they’ll have any trouble following it here.”

  “The rain might have washed our tracks away.”

  “Possibly, but they’ll know we were heading this way, and the only thing here is the mesa.”

  “So, they could be on their way up.”

  “Not with the storm still raging and not until they know for sure where we climbed.”

  “So, we’re safe until the rain stops.”

  “Safe enough for you to lie down and rest.”

  “I don’t need rest. I need answers. I came to Arizona to find a deadbeat dad who owed twenty thousand dollars back child support. Now I’m running for my life. I want to know why.” She stared out into the darkness, rain splattering her face, icy against her overheated skin.

  “Could be the dad doesn’t want to pay up.”

  “And decided to commit murder to avoid it?”

  “People have committed murder for less reason.”

  “True, but not this time. My brain might not be functioning on full capacity, but it’s still working well enough for me to know that. I hadn’t even found the guy. He had no reason to think I would. He ran from New York two years ago. Ran from Chicago seven months ago. Every time the police close in on him, he runs. Why stop running now?”

  “Good question, but you won’t find your answer tonight. Come on.” He led her back into the depth of the cave, urged her to lie down again.

  She wanted to protest.

  Couldn’t.

  Her body felt leaden, her legs weak, and all she could do was exactly what he wanted—lie down, close her eyes, sink into darkness.

  He brushed sopping hair from her cheek, felt her forehead again, and she let him. Let him take care of her in a way she hadn’t let anyone take care of her in a very long time.

  She didn’t like it, felt helpless to do anything else.

  Jonas lifted her head, slid his pack beneath it and she opened her eyes, looked into his face.

  “Who are you, Jonas Sampson?” she asked, the question stumbling out without thought.

  He hesitated, the shrugged. “Just a friend of your boss.”

  “Kane wouldn’t have called in someone who was just a friend to do this job.”

  “No. I guess he wouldn’t have. Get some sleep, Grady. We may have a long night ahead of us. I’m going to see if I can get some reception and call for transport. With any luck, we’ll have a ride out of here by first light.” He moved away, and she didn’t have the strength to say what she was thinking.

  It would take more than luck to get a ride out before the enemy closed in. It would take skill, determination, faith.

  Faith.

  That illusive thing that she clung to with both fists, but that always seemed to slip from her grasp when the going got tough. She’d beg for help but instead of waiting for an answer, she’d jump in to solve the problem herself. Head-first, not even looking to see where she might land.

  She’d learned her lesson about depending on others early, and she’d learned well. A drug-addicted mother, an alcoholic father, no one she could really trust to help her when she’d needed it—those things had made her the person she was. Maybe that’s why she constantly struggled
for control, tried to call the shots when she should really be allowing God to lead the way. Jumped into things without a firm plan in mind.

  Any way she cut it, the results were always the same. Trouble.

  And she was in it again.

  This time, she had no choice but to depend on God.

  Depend on Jonas.

  A stranger who’d stepped in and offered help she desperately needed.

  A stranger she could trust with her life?

  She hoped so, because the darkness she’d been holding at bay was closing in, her hold on the world was slipping and she was falling into dreams and nightmares and memories.

  She jerked upright, afraid to let go, afraid of what it would mean if she woke and Jonas was gone and she was there, alone in a cave a hundred feet above the ground.

  “Hey, calm down, everything is okay.” He was at her side, pressing her back before she could stand.

  “No. It’s not. I’m out in the middle of nowhere, running for my life with a man I don’t know.”

  “You know Kane, and you know the kinds of friends he keeps. Isn’t that enough?” The question seeped in, eased her frantic thoughts.

  He was right.

  She did know Kane.

  She did know the kind of friends he kept.

  Good people, all of them.

  But she still didn’t want to let go, didn’t want to give in.

  She tracked Jonas’s movement as he walked back to the mouth of the cave, watched as he settled there, cross-legged, watching the desert floor, doing what she should be doing herself.

  What she couldn’t do herself.

  She didn’t like it.

  She didn’t like it at all, but darkness edged in anyway, stole her thoughts, her fears, her need for control, and she couldn’t fight it, couldn’t stop it as it swept her away.

  FOUR

  Jonas had been prepared for a lot of things when he’d headed out to find Skylar. Days trekking through the desert, nights in subfreezing temperatures, an injury victim, maybe even a body. What he hadn’t prepared for was a posse of armed men.

  But that’s what he’d gotten.

  He’d have a few words to say to Kane when he made it back to civilization.